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Kanye West’s Sunday Service Turned Coachella Into a Big, Mauve Megachurch
The Kanye West Coachella show was rambling, inconsistent, caught between the spiritual and the Earthly, and ambitious. Any fans who showed up to the man-made mountains on the Polo Club early on Sunday...
View ArticleA Boat Full of Scientologists Is Under Measles Quarantine in the Caribbean
A Caribbean cruise for high-level Scientologists is sounding more like hell on the high seas. According to authorities on the island of St. Lucia, a vessel has been quarantined after a female crew...
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Scientology Is Looking Abroad for New Stars and Vulnerable Recruits
Last March Isabella Cruise made a rather controversial debut. The formerly press-shy daughter of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman appeared in a much-talked-about recruitment email for Scientology London....
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The Church of Scientology Assures Us That Its Cruise Ship Is Measles-Free
Nearly two weeks after a measles outbreak was reported aboard Scientology’s Freewinds cruise ship in the Caribbean, everything is shipshape. In a statement, the church says that all passengers and crew...
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Noah Levine Blames the #MeToo Movement for the Demise of His Punk Rock...
On a Monday night in March, Noah Levine was sitting in an easy chair, one wounded leg propped up before him as he addressed dozens of followers in a meeting room in Venice Beach and hundreds more who...
View ArticleA Former Scientologist Says the Cruise Kids Were Trained to Hate Nicole Kidman
A formerly high-ranking Scientologist who left the church after 22 years says that the son and daughter of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were “indoctrinated” against the actress after the pair divorced...
View Article4 Women Claim the Church of Scientology Came After Them for Reporting Their...
On Wednesday four women filed a lawsuit against the Church of Scientology alleging that they were stalked and harassed after they accused church member and actor Danny Masterson of rape. The...
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Crystals Might Be Good for Your Aura. But Buying Them Could Be Bad Karma
Ask geologists about labradorite, and they’ll tell you, roughly, that it is a feldspar mineral and a member of the plagioclase series that occurs most often in iron-rich igneous rocks such as basalt...
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After Decades on York, This Printer of Religious Tracts Is Shutting Down the...
Stephen Smalley, all glasses and white walrus mustache, is shuffling around the Free Tract Society on a quiet morning instructing a volunteer how to prepare a shipment of religious literature that was...
View ArticleDo Scientologists Actually Live in That Huge Blue Building in Hollywood?
For answers to more of your burning questions, visit the Ask Chris archive. Q: Do Scientologists actually live in that huge blue building in Hollywood? A: It’s not clear what they do in there, but the...
View ArticleAn Outdoor Church in Skid Row Was Already Close to Broke—Then Someone Stole...
Quadryya King, 38, came to Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles for the drugs. On a recent chilly Friday evening, she stumbled upon several rows of white folding chairs set in a semicircle on the corner of...
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How Beverly Hills Police Tracked a Suspected Synagogue Vandal All the Way to...
Last Saturday, shortly after 6 a.m., a congregant of Nessah Synagogue made his way through Beverly Hills on his morning bike ride. But his routine ended when he caught sight of his place of worship. On...
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Where to Get Food To-Go for Passover During the Pandemic
Each spring, Jewish families traditionally celebrate Passover with a big, sit-down Seder. If your usual routine involves a meal out at an L.A. restaurant, the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a dent in...
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How a Cranky 77-Year-Old Communist from Nicaragua Saved L.A.’s Most...
In 2017, after months of toxic infighting, the congregation of Koreatown’s First Unitarian Universalist Church, one of the most radical and historic churches in Los Angeles—if not the nation—was faced...
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Yogi Bhajan Turned an L.A. Yoga Studio into a Juggernaut, and Left Two...
In 1968, Pamela Saharah Dyson, 25 and newly divorced, moved into a Beachwood Drive duplex. She sped through Hollywood in her black MG convertible to Burbank, where she worked as a secretary at Warner...
View ArticleFormer Scientologists Sound Off on the Church Collecting COVID-19 Relief Money
Scientology, the religion that’s got everything from space warlords to brain audits and Tom Cruise, now has your tax money too. According to federal data released earlier this month, the Trump...
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To Survive COVID-19, the Jewish High Holidays Go Virtual—or Outdoors—Across L.A.
Jews worldwide usher in a new year—5781—beginning September 14 with Rosh Hashanah, by legend, the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, and concluding with prayers, a 24-hour fast, and final...
View ArticleHigh-Profile Pastor Carl Lentz Fired from Celebrity-Linked Megachurch Hillsong
UPDATE: 5:27 P.M. – In an Instagram post this afternoon, former Hillsong pastor Carl Lentz appeared to shed light on the “revelation of moral failures” that lead to his dismissal from the high-profile...
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Local Church Offers Drive-Thru ‘Ash and Dash’ Service for Ash Wednesday
The pandemic has renewed our affection for drive-thru meals and movies. Now, for this year’s Ash Wednesday, one local church is offering a drive-thru “ash and dash” service, where you can receive...
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After Decades on York, This Printer of Religious Tracts Is Shutting Down the...
Stephen Smalley, all glasses and white walrus mustache, is shuffling around the Free Tract Society on a quiet morning instructing a volunteer how to prepare a shipment of religious literature that was...
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